


Trifecta

by Enchantable



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 20:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh and Mako find a third pod</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trifecta

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: If I could send you a prompt that isn't Maleigh? After Mako and Rals have been picked up. They discover a third life pod with a dimishing lifesign, an unconscious, critically hurt Chuck

They straddle the pod, leaning their foreheads against each other and e reveling in the adrenaline from saving the world.

They’re so lost in the joy of the moments it’s a miracle they hear the sucking sound. Raleigh turns towards it at the moment Mako tenses. His hand grasps hers, his mind going to everything from Kaiju vengeance to the monster sharks in those movies he watched with Yancy. They didn’t come all this way to get eaten by a shark. Except what breaks the water isn’t a limb or a dorsal fin, its a handle. And it only comes up for a second before sinking down.

"Mako!"

He shouts for her but she’s already in the water, swimming towards it. She opens her eyes to see it’s a pod. She sucks in a breath and dives down. The pod is a twisted, broken wreck and she can see the air pouches haven’t all inflated. Her fingers lock around the handle as she gropes for the manual release. They inflate and yank her and the pod to the surface. Raleigh helps her get the pod to his, steadying it somewhat. She helps him get back up before grabbing the kit that’s stashed in the pods. 

The pod is mangled and burned, but she can see the bulldog. Her hands grab the glass breaker and get the plexiglass off the top. The helmet is cracked and fogged but she can see the red. Her fingers find the latches and she pulls it off him, desperate to confirm who’s underneath. Chuck looks horribly young, like he’s a kid instead of someone who just saved the world. Distantly she can hear Raleigh shouting into his comm but she’s already ripping off her wrist guards so she can angle her wrists better. She puts her face near Chuck’s mouth but there’s nothing and then she’s pinching his nose and sealing her lips over his.

Raleigh gets his torso out of the pod and rips apart enough of his armor to get to his chest. She breathes for him as he pumps his chest and somehow together they keep the young pilot alive long enough for the medics to get there and take over. 

Four hours later they’re in scrubs, Herc looks like he’s going to vomit and Max is crying at their feet.

Raleigh’s on enough pain killers to make focus a distant memory but his shoulder isn’t agony for once. Mako’s cradling an oxygen tank with a mask over her face. They should both be in hospital beds with more than a quick check up but both have informed the doctors their attention is needed elsewhere. That elsewhere has gone on for nine hours and probably will more. Mako’s grateful. Every hour the doctor doesn’t come through the door is another hour when they have hope Chuck will come through this. 

They get four more hours.

The doctor emerges finally. They’re all used to the sight of blood and sweat, but they pale at the sight of his face. He doesn’t wait until he’s fully in the room before telling them Chuck’s alive. Not out of the woods, not good, but he’s stable. Two others appear behind him and Mako and Raleigh find themselves pushed into wheelchairs and steered away. Herc stands there for a second, not sure how to form the words before two men appear holding scrubs and masks for him and a third offers to take Max on a much needed walk. 

in some ways it’s like seeing Chuck for the first time all over again.

Herc just stares and stares, unwilling to look away for even a fraction of a second. Machines are doing most things for Chuck. They’re breathing and hydrating and pumping waste from his damaged body. But his heart’s beating strong and Herc doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to repay Stacker for this. Not in a thousand lifetimes. clumsily he drags a chair to the bed and sits down. He can’t hold his sons hand, not yet. But he can watch over him.

It’s weeks before Chuck blearily opens his eye. 

Mako has the watch when he does and for the first time many years she is truly speechless. But then she’s moving, screaming for the doctors in a language they don’t speak. Chuck would point that out but there’s something down his throat and the world is slipping away. He makes a note to be snarky when he wakes up, no point in worrying anyone. 

Three days later the tube down his throat now snakes through his nostrils. His wrists are pinned to the bed. He knows he’s injured but when they tell him the extent of the damage he looses it just a little. He may not have a right leg anymore but he’s got a right hand and the doctor has a perfectly good nose. Or had one anyway. The purple around his eyes when he comes in makes chuck feel a bit better.

Not as good as he does when someone finally brings Max in. 

The dog hops up on the bed and finds the space where his leg used to be. He immediately settles there and doesn’t move for hours except to glare when Chuck dares to stop petting him. It’s the most physical movement he’s done in weeks. 

Surprisingly enough it’s Becket he tolerates the most. Mako has an edge of sadness about her that reminds him he made it out and Stacker didn’t. And he puts on a show for his dad because Herc’s the Marshall now and Chuck isnt going to let him fuck it up. Not on his account. But Becket seems to get what he’s feeling, gets how fucked up his head is. 

He doesn’t say anything to that effect, he just sits there. When the tv’s busted he somehow gets a laptop, probably from Mako, and puts on stupid movies so Chuck doesn’t have to be alone with his thoughts. When physical therapy starts Raleigh is there. Not because of kindness but because he’s managed to fuck up his own shoulder again. 

It becomes a competition of sorts. 

The physical therapists threaten to quit but Mako glares them obedience. He catches Newt and Hannibal watching them once and finds out he’s the favorite to rehabilitate first but Chuck’s the favorite get in a fight first. He tells this to the pilot who scoffs as if the idea of anything else insane and pushes the treadmill just a little faster as Max trots happily alongside him.


End file.
